


Growling

by whitehorsetiger



Series: Pack Dynamics [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha Lance (Voltron), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Bonding, Established Relationship, Family, Fluff, Growling, Love, M/M, Minor Angst, Omega Keith (Voltron), instincts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 20:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17331626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitehorsetiger/pseuds/whitehorsetiger
Summary: Grumbling and growling are often mistaken for each other, however have very different mechanisms. Grumbling involves a closed mouth and is mostly from the throat, growling is louder, rumbling from the chest instead. Grumbling is used under a variety of circumstances and by a variety of people, regardless of secondary sex. Growling is similar, being used under a variety of circumstances, but only by alphas.Five times Lance growled and one time he snarled.





	1. Five times

_Grumbling and growling are often mistaken for each other, however have very different mechanisms. Grumbling involves a closed mouth and is mostly from the throat, growling is louder, rumbling from the chest instead. Grumbling is used under a variety of circumstances and by a variety of people, regardless of secondary sex. Growling is similar, being used under a variety of circumstances, but only by alphas._

**One**

Lance tilted his head to one side, sniffing the air slightly. Bingo. A deep growl from his throat as Lance began to sniff out his targets. It wasn’t difficult, his nose was the best out of his family and pup-sweet smell was very uncommon in the garrison. With a slight growl, Lance set off after the very familiar smell.

He ducked and weaved through the corridors, running when there was no one around and walking slowly and professionally when someone was coming. Lance had to bite back a laugh every single time he passed someone, especially as they snapped to attention, gave him a respectful good morning. Before the whole defenders of the universe thing, they wouldn’t have given him a second thought, some of them even used to tease him. Lance decided to concentrate on the funny side of that, not the very, very, sad side.

“Lance?” Hunk asked, “What are you doing?”  
Lance froze from where he was sneaking down the corridor, pressing a finger to his lip and gesturing for Hunk to come over. Hunk glanced suspiciously from side to side before sneaking over.  
“You know you don’t have to sneak out anymore right?” Hunk said, “I’m pretty sure we have full clearance.”  
Lance hushed him, rolling his eyes.  
“Can you hear the giggling broom cupboard,” he said, gesturing down the hallway.  
“What?” Hunk asked, but followed Lance as he snuck down the corridor.

Eventually they reached the end of the scent trail, and the broom cupboard which was giggling.  
“Ohhh,” Hunk mouthed, nodding as he figured it out.  
Smiling, Lance rested his hand on the door handle. A playful growl rolling through him as he flung the door open.  
“Got you!” he shouted.  
Twin squeals from Sylvio and Nadia, only getting louder as Lance play-lunged at them. They dodged out of the way, taking off down the corridor. Nadia was scream-laughing, Sylvio only laughing as they slipped around the corridor.  
“Hunk, man,” Lance said, “What was that?”  
Hunk was biting back his own laugh, patting Lance on the shoulder.  
“Sorry man,” Hunk laughed, “I’m afraid I’m on the kid’s side with this one.”  
Lance pouted, “Traitor.”

 

**Two**

Maybe he was overreacting, maybe he was just being dramatic, or petty or whatever. But Lance needed time to get over  that  little stinger.  
“Sorry Keith,” Lance said, “Maybe later yeah? I promised Ronnie I’d do something with her.”  
Keith’s face fell and Lance felt bad for a moment, until he remembered the company Keith was currently with and the one Lance would be forced to spent time with if he agreed.  
“Oh,” Keith replied, “Yeah, ok, later.”  
Cosmo trotted up beside Lance, starting to lick his hand, then continued to lick it. He continued this until Lance smiled and chuckled, chasing after it as Lance pulled away.  
“I’ll see you later,” Lance smiled.  
He turned, pretending not to notice the slightly hurt look on Keith’s face at his lack of a kiss. He’d make it up to Keith later.

Lance had actually been looking for Keith when his mood took a nose-dive. There wasn’t any particular reason, he just wanted to cuddle, maybe make out a bit, see how the afternoon went. That was when he’d seen him with Shiro and, Iverson, Iverson of all people. They didn’t even seem to be having a serious conversation, suspicions were confirmed when Shiro laughed, Keith grinning at something Iverson said. Fan..tas..tic...

He knew Iverson had apologised, to Keith, no one else, only Keith. He was being much nicer, now they were defenders of the universe. Didn’t stop the clawing feeling of inadequacy and anger rising in Lance’s chest whenever he saw the other man. It didn’t really help that he was basically ignored when he was with Keith, he seemed to be nicer, clearly nothing had changed.

Lance let out an irritated…sad? He wasn’t quite sure, growl. It was almost completely silent, but Lance could feel it. He jumped as something wet ran up his hand.  
“Holy…Cosmo?” Lance said, looking down at the surprisingly sneaky space-wolf, “What are you doing? Go back to Keith.”  
Cosmo simply tilted his head to one side, making a confused aroo? Sound. Lance sighed, but couldn’t help the slight smile perk up his mouth.  
“Come on then,” he said, “If you’re coming with me.”  
Comso’s tail started to wag, tongue hanging out.  
“Might as well go see Ronnie,” Lance sighed, “Seen as though I said I would.”

****

Veronica was, surprisingly, in her room. To be fair, it was where people were actually least likely to look for her. Her expression stated she wanted to be alone, but the probably completely miserable look on his face convinced her to let him in. He walked straight over to her bed, landing face-down, grunting as Cosmo hopped onto the bed and laying across his back.  
“What happened?” she asked, making her way over to her desk.  
Lance groaned into the pillows, pushing Cosmo away as he began to lick his ear.  
“Alright,” she replied, “Just tell me when you’re ready.”

They sat and lay in silence for a bit, Cosmo still collapsed on his back, occasionally licking his neck. It didn’t fail to make him smile. With a long breath, Lance turned his head to one side, looking over at Veronica at her desk, tapping away at her tablet.  
“It’s Iverson,” Lance said softly.  
“Iverson’s an ass,” Veronica replied, looking up.  
Lance snorted, “Aren’t you not allowed to say that about him.”  
Veronica smirked, “Not to his face.”  
Lance smiled weakly, before sighing again.  
“It’s just, everyone is acting all buddy buddy with him. I mean, I know he apologised…to Keith…to only Keith…and that’s apparently good enough for everyone. It’s just, not? For me?”  
Veronica sighed, putting her tablet down before walking over to the bed and sitting beside Lance. She rested her hand on his head, making her scent as soothing as possible. Lance realised he was growling again, he didn’t really care.

“Look Lance,” she said, “Iverson is, ok, but he’s not a very good teacher. Everyone knows he has his favourites and of course that was going to be Keith, the naturally gifted pilot who was good no matter how bad the teaching was. You replaced his favourite and wasn’t immediately as good, you needed guidance, time to get into your groove. Don’t pay him any mind Lance, he’s not worth the effort. You’ve already more than proved what he was spouting was a load of garbage, you don’t need his approval.”  
“Would be nice though,” Lance mumbled.  
Veronica sighed, “Yeah, it would be, just don’t hold your breath.”

She tugged him to sit up, causing Cosmo to grumble as he slipped onto the bed. Veronica quickly scented him, before ruffling his hair.  
“Now you can’t spend all night moping in my room,” she said.  
Lance wined, “Why not!”  
“Well for one,” Veronica said, “You’re not a pup anymore and two, you have an actual boyfriend who probably wants to spend time with you and will probably get worried if you go missing.”  
“Awh,” Lance pouted, “Don’t you want to spend time with me?”  
“Only the amount I’m obligated too as family,” she said.  
“Don’t you worry about me,” Lance said, kicking out his legs.  
“All the time,” Veronica groaned, “Literally…I think I’m going to die of stress with you as my younger brother, moron.”  
Lance stuck his tongue out, rolling out of bed and stretching.  
“Guess I’m going back to our room,” he said.  
Cosmo yipped, jumping off the bed and sprinting towards him.  
“No! Cosmo!” Lance yelped.  
Cosmo hit him at full speed, a bright flash of light and an uncomfortable swirling, they were teleporting.

**Three**

All the different varieties of aliens, all the different social structures, all different reproductive methods. It was a bit surprising when they ran into a planet with those similar to earth, the only difference was the lack of primary sex and their three sexes were named different things and one…quite big one.  
“You need to stay close to Keith for the whole night,” Allura sighed, “Just, whatever you do, don’t get separated. Omegas have a harem of alphas, and they tend to…trade them, just, don’t give them chance to try anything.”

Lance, didn’t need to worry about wandering off on his own, Keith had basically glued himself to Lance’s side. Even without that, Lance wouldn’t have strayed very far. He did not like how they were looking at him, especially with their elongated limbs and faces. They looked like something out of a horror movie, pupil-less milky eyes didn’t really help.

He wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone, he simply had to stand there and look pretty. It was getting more and more difficult throughout the night. Keith was doing fine, he’d improved over his time with Voltron, but was still a bit awkward in these situations. With him being the leader of Voltron and the only omega on the team, everyone wanted to talk to him. Lance could see he was starting to flag, but couldn’t really do much about it other than offer his support.

The two of them managed to find a quiet corner for a minute, giving Keith chance to breathe.  
“You doing alright?” Lance asked, linking their fingers carefully.  
“I keep thinking I’m going to mess up,” Keith groaned, rubbing his face, “Why can’t they just talk to Allura.”  
“I think you know,” Lance said.  
Keith grunted softly, “Remind me to buy her something next time we’re planet-side for dealing with all this crap.”  
Lance chuckled lightly, rubbing up and down his back.  
“Tell you what,” Lance said softly, “I’ll give you a full-body massage when we get back to the ship.”  
Keith looked up at him, wide-eyed and slightly turned on.  
“Promise?”  
Lance grinned, “Promise, now let’s get back out there.”

The leader called to meet with the head of Voltron, Keith very quickly tried to divert attention to Allura. It didn’t work completely, but he did manage to convince the leader to let her come with them. Lance squeezed his waist lightly as Keith walked away, smiling at him lightly as Keith shot him a nervous look, trying to look as supportive as possible. Keith bit his lip, before letting out a long breath and following Allura and the leader out of the room. Lance didn’t realise this left him alone.

A hand wrapped around Lance’s bicep and pulled him to the side, causing him to let out a slightly startled noise. A few of the guests noticed this, glancing over before looking away, completely uninterested.  
“Aren’t you interesting,” a cool voice said, Lance felt his spine stiffen.  
He turned to be face-to-face with the leaders ‘omega’ child, Erpherum? Lance was pretty sure that was their name. Lance didn’t really know how to reply to that.  
“I’m human,” that was probably not the best way.  
“You are aren’t you?” Erpherum? Or was it Elserum? Said, “Such a tiny, interesting thing.”  
Lance’s face was cupped in Ernestrum’s? hand, the huge thing completely covering his face from brow to brow.  
“So, delicate,” Ernettum? Said, “You know, you’d look beautiful as part of my harem.”  
Lance jerked out of his grip, woah woah woah, no way, what the hell?  
“Don’t worry,” Entitum? Continued, “I know you need to go save the universe, so I’ll just borrow you for the night."

Lance attempted to back up without offending, eyes darting around for Hunk? Pidge? Anyone? He didn’t think any of them would help him.  
“I can’t,” Lance said, “I’m in a relationship.”  
“Oh,” Exedrum? Said, “Don’t worry about that, your black paladin can have his choice of the finest members of my harem in exchange, that’s only fair.”  
A slight growl began to rise out of Lance’s chest as he continued to try to back away, the hell?  
“I wonder if our species are compatible?” Elrerum? Said, “Well I guess we’ll soon find out.”  
Lance’s growl rose in volume until surely at the very least those around them could hear him. It didn’t seem to matter to Ewhateverum, who drew Lance into a kiss.

Lance tried to jerk away, growling viciously. It didn’t really work, their fingers may be spindly but they were insanely strong.

“What the hell?”  
Ebuttheadum was suddenly launched sideways as a fist met his face, Lance staggered away, hitting a warm muscly chest, an arm wrapping around his waist. Keith. Eassum turned back to them, rubbing his jaw where Keith had punched him.  
“Now, now,” Ebitchum said, “Don’t worry, I was going to let you have fun with one of mine, of your choice, this was all going to be fair.”  
“Fair?” Keith spat.  
Lance was still growling, bracing himself to…well…probably run.  
“That is not how relationships work on Earth, Everum,” Allura said.  
“Oh?” Everum (apparently) said, “Why ever not, it’s greedy to keep all your alphas to yourself.”  
“I only have one alpha,” Keith said, “We only have one partner at a time usually.”  
Everum laughed, outright laughs.  
“Now why would you do that? How can you have only one partner during fertile periods? You need multiple partners to keep you satisfied while others rest, it’s just sensible.”

“Everum!” The leader said, striding over, “You must respect other’s customs, what did I tell you?”  
“Well they are being foolish,” Everum said, “All I wanted was for one night with their red paladin, imagine having his genetics as part of our family.”  
Keith’s grip on Lance’s waist tightened, to almost painful levels.  
“If the black paladin does not want his mate to breed with you, we must respect his wishes,” the leader said.  
Lance had a feeling his wants were not, and never would be part of the consideration.  
Everum scoffed, “I’m being perfectly reasonable.”  
The leader turned to them with a sickly smile.  
“I’m sorry for the…ah…cultural misunderstanding, but if you do wish to strengthen our bond further…”  
“No,” Allura said, eyes blazing in fury, “Thank you for the kind offer, but we are not interested. Now then, if there are not any objections, we will be going back to our ship." There were none, so they did. Keith’s arm curled protectively around Lance’s waist.

Allura was storming on a head, looking completely furious. Keith was still looking murderous, Lance curled his arm in turn around Keith’s waist, pulling him close.  
“Cultural misunderstanding my ass,” she said, “I explained how human culture worked, I explained how it was inappropriate to try and proposition Lance, Or well, rather Keith.”  
“Sorry for loosing track of you,” Hunk frowned, “I should’ve realised after Keith left you would be alone.”  
Lance smiled weakly, “Don’t worry, Everwhatshisfaceum pounced on me the second Keith left, was probably hovering for a while.”  
“Still,” Hunk frowned, “I could have stopped it sooner.”  
Lance shrugged lightly, Keith gently knocking their heads together, nuzzling him slightly in comfort.  
“Perfectly reasonable,” Allura scoffed, “Genetics as part of our family, what a load of complete garbage!”  
Lance laid his head on Keith’s shoulder, letting out a long breath. Keith tugged him as close as possible with their bulky armour. Evdon’treallycareanymoreum was lucky to get out of that with only a bruised jaw.

 

**Four**

Lance did like his quiet time, time to wind down and relax. It had been difficult before they returned to earth for him to have these moments. He couldn’t just sit there and do nothing, his mind wouldn’t let him settle without something to keep it occupied. It was one of the reasons he was so happy when they’d managed to get the games system set up. Now though, they had all sorts of things from earth to keep him preoccupied.

Lance curled up on the sofa, tablet in hand, book on tablet. He didn’t know how long he’d been reading for, but it was enough time for his shoulders to untense, his spine to relax and his entire body to melt into the sofa cushions. His eyes were half-lidded, Lance was pretty sure he was going to drift off. That would be nice, a quick nap would be nice.

The door slipped open not too long after, he hadn’t quite had the time to drift off yet. Twitching his nose, Lance hummed softly. Keith. The other man was completely silent as he made his way over to the sofa, so Lance jumped when he was poked in the side. He let out a light growl as Keith laughed.  
“Move your arms,” he said, “I want to cuddle.”  
Lance hum-growled, opening his arms and placing the tablet on the ground. Keith crawled onto the sofa to lay on Lance’s chest. Curling his arms around Keith’s back, Lance settled back to try and nap again.

Another poke in his side, Lance growled softly. Keith nuzzled into his neck, rubbing his nose right up against Lance’s scent gland. With the sight press of teeth, Lance growled again, opening an eye.  
“Really?” he mumbled.  
Keith looked up at him, fluttering his eyelashes slightly.  
“Why not?” Keith shrugged with a smile.  
“Aren’t you tired?” Lance said, slipping his hand lightly under Keith’s shirt to rest on the warm skin.  
Keith hummed, tilting his chin up to nuzzle under Lance’s jaw.  
“We’ve not exactly done anything,” Keith said, stretching.  
Lance hummed, resting his hand on Keith’s head and pressing it down to his chest.  
“Nap now, sex later,” Lance said, squishing him close in a cuddle.  
Keith huffed out a laugh, turning to kiss the small patch of bare skin he could reach.  
“The fire’s already gone,” Keith said, “We burned out so soon.”  
Lance growled, curling his arms tightly around Keith before flipping them over as best he could on the narrow surface.

Keith laughed as Lance shuffled them around, finger curling in his shirt. Lance looked down at him, smiling softly before leaning down to press their lips together. Keith made a happy nose as Lance growled softly again, before he pulled away.  
“Exactly,” Lance smiled, “Sleep now, sex later.”  
He lay himself back down on Keith’s chest, causing the omega to laugh. He didn’t seem too fussed though, a purr was starting to rumble through Keith’s chest as his hand reached up to run through Lance’s hair.  
“Sleep now, sex later.”

**Five**

Lance blinked awake slowly, stretching with a hum. He was so glad they’d forked out a little extra for these beds, they were so damn comfortable. Although, they were defenders of the universe so they could have probably have got it for free. Whatever, the bed was nice, Lance was comfortable, he could drift off quite happily again. There was no warm body pressed against his side though, no head rested on his chest, where was Keith?

Lance hummed lightly, opening his eyes. Oh Keith hadn’t actually left the bed, he’d just rolled to lay on his back. His left hand was up in the air, turning slowly from side to side. Lance smiled lightly as the two rings on his finger glimmered in the light, his engagement and his brand-new wedding ring. Completely unaware of his audience, Keith had the softest smile on his face as he admired his rings, well probably ring.

Lance smiled, shifting and rolling to Keith’s side, pressing a kiss to his shoulder. Keith jumped slightly, turning to face Lance, dropping his hand down to his side.  
“Hi,” Keith said, flushing slightly.  
Lance smiled, rolling to pin Keith on the bed with a growl. Keith chirruped in response, baring his neck instinctively. Lance dropped down, pressing a kiss to the presented skin, nipping lightly. Keith was making soft happy noises, a purr starting to rumble from his chest.  
“Hello, my love,” Lance murmured softly.  
Keith shuddered, both at Lance’s ministrations, and his words.  
“My mate,” Lance said, fingers moving back to brush against the bite on the back of Keith’s neck, “My husband.”  
He took Keith’s hand, lifting it up to press a kiss to his ring finger.

Keith’s eyes were shining, his cheeks pink. As Lance watched, tears welled in his eyes, spilling over.  
“Oh, honey,” Lance smiled, chuckling lightly, “I thought you’d run out of tears yesterday.”  
Keith groaned, covering his eyes.  
“Shut up,” he grumbled, but there was a huge smile on his face.  
Lance began pressing kisses to whatever piece of Keith’s face he could get to around his arm. Keith pressed his hand on Lance’s face, pushing him away with a laugh.  
“Get off me,” he said, “Pain in the ass.”  
Lance laughed, nuzzling his neck.  
“I love you,” he said.  
“Love you too,” Keith said.  
Lance grinned, before growling and swooping down to kiss him.


	2. Plus One

_Snarling is a very rare alpha response, only used in the roughest of situations. A snarl can only occur when an alpha has gone feral, a state of rage only occurring under extreme circumstances. When pushed right to the edge, an alpha can go into a heightened state, wounds have less impact, they become much more violent and protective over their pack members. Alphas that have entered this state afterwards cannot remember anything that happened during it. Snarling is the only warning a feral alpha will give before attacking._

**Plus One**

Lance took a deep breath, taking the shot. The alien he was aiming at spasmed, dropping to the ground as it was stunned. He shifted slightly, resisting the urge to groan as pins and needles shot through his foot. Clambering to his feet, Lance dropped to the ground, eyes darting from sound to side before he jogged to another area.

This small group of aliens were trying to take over a few occupied planets, they’d cut off this particular planet’s communications. Meaning, they’d gotten pretty far in their take over before Voltron had been able to interfere. Pidge was working on disabling their mainframe, release their hold on the planet’s technology. It wasn’t based on anything they’d come across before, so it was taking her some time. Keith was with her on lookout, Lance, Hunk and Allura were clearing out the problematic aliens. It wasn’t too difficult, Lance sniping them as best he could, Hunk and Allura mopping them up. The whole thing was underground, lit very sporadically. The aliens themselves were very ill prepared though, so even at this disadvantage it wasn’t too difficult.

Lance hopped up into the top of the tunnel, running along and scanning around.  
“Allura,” Pidge said suddenly over the comms, “There’s a language here I don’t understand, it’s similar to Altean though, can you come look at it?”  
There was a pause, probably as Allura was talking to Hunk.  
“Yes, I’ll be right there,” she said.  
Another alien passed by, Lance took it down with one shot.  
“I think we’re almost done here,” Hunk said, “I can’t see any unaccounted for biorhythms on the scan.”  
“After Allura translates this, it shouldn’t take too long here either,” Pidge said.  
“Don’t become complacent,” Keith said, “We can’t risk anything.”

Lance remained perched in his corner, checking his scanner every few minutes. Only the aliens he had stunned and the other members of his team, no problem. He was sat there for a while, keeping an eye on the scanner every few minutes.   
“This stupid thing is not responding,” Pidge grumbled into the communicator, “What the hell did they even do? It doesn’t seem to be making any sense…I…wait…”  
Lance’s stomach dropped at Pidge’s tone, and the long pause that followed. He tensed, ready to get moving.

An explosion rocked the entire tunnels system, causing dust to fall from the ceiling and cracks to run through the dirt. Lance was frozen for a few seconds, before he sprang from his place before sprinting to the ‘control room’.   
“Pidge? Allura? Keith?” Lance called into the comms.  
There was only static as a reply, whether the comms were out, or…Lance didn’t know. He had to get there as quickly as possible.

The room had almost entirely caved in, Lance could see nothing but a mixture of stone, dirt and metal beams. Lance quickly scanned the pile until he saw it, a hand, reaching out of the rubble, clad in pink armour. Lance ran over, beginning to dig out the loose dirt and rocks, whatever he could move, until revealing Allura’s head. She was still conscious, the bottom of her helmet dissolving away as her head was freed.  
“Are you ok?” Lance asked, scouring around.  
The rocks were too big for him to move anymore, she was trapped unless they could get a lion down here. She nodded, coughing slightly at the dust in the air.  
“My armour took most of the impact,” she said, coughing again, “We should all be fine, the explosion was very localised to the ceiling, they wanted that to cave in.”  
Lance nodded glancing around, Hunk came jogging in.  
“We need to move this big stuff,” Lance said, “Can you do it with Yellow?”  
Hunk glanced around, “I don’t know? It depends where Pidge and Keith are.”

Lance nodded, checking his bioscan, red dot, green dot.  
“Close,” he said, “They’re together just over here.”  
Hunk nodded, following Lance to a patch not too far away, closer to the centre. The two of them began to dig through, having to go in more through the side, the top having too many heavy beams and boulders. Working together, they managed to get through most of it, until Lance’s hand hit armour. Hurriedly shoving the remaining dirt and rocks away, Lance revealed red armour, a hand that quickly grabbed his.

A groan of pain as Keith tried to shift to the opening, far too trapped to move at all. They began to work around where his head probably was, revealing some of Pidge in the process. Eventually both their heads were free, both still conscious, both only suffering from what they referred to as minor crushing.  
“Yeah?” Lance asked, turning to Hunk.  
Hunk nodded, “I’ll go get yellow.”  
Lance squeezed Keith’s hand lightly, reaching out to grab Pidge’s. She clung to it like a lifeline, taking several deep breaths before coughing slightly.   
“Well that was unexpected,” she said.  
Keith snorted, wriggling a little bit, there was absolutely no give.

Lance’s scanner started to beep, he frowned, looking down at it. Flashing up, there were a lot of dots moving their way, very rapidly.   
“Shoot,” Lance said, scrambling to his feet, “Hunk? Hunk? Can you hear me?”  
Nothing but static. Damn it.  
“Lance,” Keith said, “Lance, get out of here, we’ll be ok. Go.”  
Lance shook his head, moving to the bottom of the rubble.  
“Seriously,” Keith said, “You can’t hold them all off.”  
“I’m not leaving you behind,” Lance said.  
Something seemed to have clicked in his head, he couldn’t leave his pack members, he couldn’t leave his mate. Lifting his gun up, Lance braced himself for the onslaught.

Pain was blazing through him, his armour blocked most of the impacts, but not them all. There was blood dripping down his side from an unlucky blow, the one who dealt it laying groaning on the floor. They just kept coming, wave after wave of them, one went down and another immediately took its place. Lance couldn’t keep going for much longer, but his pack was in danger, he had to keep them safe, he just had too.

A pained omega yelp, followed by yelling, followed by a scream. Lance turned, Keith’s face was twisted in pain, a smoking hole in his armour. Pidge’s helmet had been removed, her nose bloodied. That was the straw that broke the camels back. Lance bared his teeth, a purely animalistic sound being torn out of his throat. Both Keith and Pidge flinched at the noise. Lance could remember nothing more.

****

Lance stumbled out of the healing pod, hitting a warm chest with a familiar scent. They were quickly lowered to the ground, a warm hand knotting through his hair.  
“Lance?” Keith called softly, “Lance? Are you back with us.”  
Lance blinked, trying to clear the haze from his mind.  
“Keith?” Lance slurred, “Wa happened?”  
Keith breathed out a sigh of relief, shifting them into a more comfortable position.  
“You went feral,” Keith said, rubbing his back.  
“I did what?” Lance said, sitting up.  
He swayed, clutching his head with a groan. Keith pulled him close again, pressing Lance’s face into his neck.  
“You went feral, don’t worry, no one got too hurt,” Keith said, “Well other than you.”

Lance didn’t really know what went on in his brain next, everything was still a little fuzzy. But it seemed to decide the best action next was to burst into tears.   
“Oh, shoot, Lance,” Keith said, before drawing him into a slightly awkward hug.  
It almost made Lance laugh, all this time and Keith was still slightly awkward at comforting. Lance didn’t really mind, all he needed was warm arms around him and a comforting scent. They just sort of sat there for a bit, Lance sobbing into Keith’s shoulder until he exhausted himself and his tears dried.

Keith wiped his tears away gently, cuddling Lance close to his chest.  
“Better?” he said.  
Lance nodded, tucking himself close.  
“’m tired,” Lance murmured.  
Keith nodded, rubbing Lance’s shoulder gently.   
“Let me just get Coran to make sure you’re ok,” Keith replied, helping Lance up to his feet.  
Lance nodded, allowing the omega to lead him to one of the medical beds. Keith cupped Lance’s face in his hands, pressing a soft kiss under his eye.  
“I love you,” Keith said softly, “But don’t you dare do that to me ever again.”  
Lance smiled softly, “Love you too sweetheart.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I have a confession to make...I didn't finish season 8, I got to episode 11 and gave up...I just...couldn't watch anymore. So...if anything I bring up is dealt with (although I doubt it) after that, I apologise.
> 
> Anyway...could they make it any more obvious how much they hated Lance...I mean really. Why the hell did Iverson apologise to Keith? Literally all he did to Keith was his job...inform Keith of Shiro's 'death' and then maybe get him kicked out for disciplinary issues? Which if what I've read is correct involved him loosing some function in one eye...which is a valid reason for him to get kicked out? So...yeah...I mean, I guess an apology is ok for Keith...but only for Keith? Yeah sure...whatever. (I'm not bitter...not at all)
> 
> So...after that tangent (Sorry) I do have more plans for this series, involving looking into the future and seeing what happens there...I'm also probably going to break out of the five plus one formula at some point so it's going to be very exciting! Probably...maybe...who knows
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are always appreciated, along with any suggestions I could do in the future. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!


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